Sid Salter
- Columnist Sid Salter notes that during a recent appearance in Tupelo, Wanek of Ashley Furniture Industries said “we must level the playing fields.”
On April 2, President Donald Trump is scheduled to unveil details on his plan to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on U.S. trading partners that are believed to be aimed at most of the $3.3 trillion in American imports.
During his first term as president and as a cornerstone of his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump espoused the belief that the current global trading system decimated American manufacturing jobs and weakened the U.S. economy.
Critics of the Trump tariff strategies claim the plan will have a negative impact on the economy and contribute to inflation, costing U.S families as much as $830 a year in higher costs for goods. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation subscribes to that opinion, writing in a March 25 white paper: “We estimate the 2018-2019 trade war tariffs imposed by Trump and retained by Biden reduce long-run GDP by 0.2 %, the capital stock by 0.1 %, and employment by 142,000 full-time equivalent jobs.”
But during a recent appearance in Tupelo to raise supporting funds for the Natchez Trace Council of the Scouting program in 22 Mississippi counties, billionaire furniture manufacturer, distributor and retailer Ronald Wanek of Ashley Furniture Industries emphatically spoke of his support for Trump’s tariff plan. Wanek’s company has some relevant experience in global trade and the impact of tariffs.
Furniture retailer Ashley Furniture Industries, ranked by Forbes as one of America’s s Top 50 private companies, brought in $10.3 billion in revenues in 2024, has some 35,000 employees working in 1,125 locations in 67 countries. Over 4,000 of those employees live and work in Mississippi in communities like Ecru, Saltillo and Verona.
The company has a strong global presence and is respected as savvy, effective competitors in tough Asian markets. Long wary of China and other competitors in that region, the founder of Ashley Furniture sent his son and later successor as CEO of the company to live and work in those Asian markets to learn first-hand their business practices.
Founded in Arcadia, Wisconsin by Ron Wanek in 1970 as Arcadia Furniture The company developed both manufacturing and supply chains along with competitive retail operations in China, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Indonesia. Wanek had a longtime business strategy to grow his company by blending domestic production and distribution and overseas manufacturing and distribution.
Wanek told Furniture Today in a 2024 interview that he had long seen Asian competitors as a threat to the success of his own company.
In 1989, Ron Wanek sent his eldest son Todd Wanek to master, build and develop the company’s Asian supply chains. “You can’t effectively compete with China and other strong economies in that region if you don’t have first-hand knowledge of how their markets work and experience the impacts of how they compete. Todd really excelled in learning those things and turning them into opportunities for our company,” Wanek said recently.
An observer of Ron Wanek’s upbringing would not likely have forecasted the phenomenal success he and his family have enjoyed.
Wanek was born in 1941 on a rural Winona, Minnesota farm as a sharecropper’s son. The Wanek family did not have a home with electricity and indoor plumbing for Ron and his three sisters. “There was always some chore that needed doing on the farm. We all worked extremely hard, but it was difficult for us to turn that work into a good living,” he said.
Now 83, Wanek sold his home to help finance his entrance into furniture manufacturing in 1970. The rest, as they say, is history. He and his family built an astonishingly successful business. In the interest of transparency, Wanek was a loyal and generous presidential campaign contributor to Trump in both the 2020 and 2024 campaigns.
Asked specifically about the Trump tariffs while at the Scouting event, Wanek said: “Well, I believe if you want to bring good jobs back to the United States, we must level the playing fields. American companies deal with tariffs all over the world. Some are fair, but many are unfair and put U.S. companies at a strong competitive disadvantage. I support the President’s tariff strategy and believe that it will in the long term be good for the economy and reshore jobs here in our country.”
Sid Salter
